David Risley Gallery is proud to announce our first solo show of James Aldridge inCopenhagen.Representation of the natural world is central to James Aldridge’s work. How werelate to images of nature and the folklore and superstitions that surrounds themaffect our reading of these images. The crow, which repeatedly features inAldridge’s work, has long been seen as an ominous portent. Rather than a simplerepresentation of a bird, the image of the crow carries with it myriadassociations.In Aldridge’s work a tension between the real and fantastic is revealed andestablishes a compelling psychological space. The conventions of landscaperepresentation are abandoned in these paintings — horizons disappear and gravityand orientation fail to obey the usual rules. Yet connections between these birds,plants and other animals and the landscape remain, conjuring a strangelyatmospheric result. Tension lies in the interplay between decorative and beautifulelements and the implied violence of dripping or vomited blood and nightmarishmutated mandalas. Polyhedral objects exert a gravitational influence on thecompositions, exploding or imploding their space, while rendering these enigmaticobjects both incongruous and pivotal. These enigmatic forms refer to 16th centuryexplorations of perspective, and like the natural history illustrations thatAldridge references they come from a time when art and science were moreintimately related to humanistic discovery than postmodern aesthetics.These elements of Aldridge's imaginaire recall this rich legacy but arere-established in a hallucinatory world where these disparate characters interactto make a whole.James Aldridge was born in the UK in 1971 and lives and works in Småland, Sweden. Recentsolo exhibitions have included Poppy Sebire Gallery, London (2011), Gabriel Rolt,Amsterdam (2010); Galería Casado Santapau, Madrid (2009); Suite Gallery, Wellington NZ(2009) and David Risley Gallery, London (2008). Group exhibitions include First Cut,Manchester City Art Gallery, Apopcalypse Now, Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam (2011), SecondBiennial of The Canary Islands, Santa Cruz de Tenerife (2009); On that which remains,Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden (2008); PLUS, Museum Wiesbaden (2007)). His paintingCold Mouth Prayer was commissioned for Tate Modern and he has work in several majorinternational, private collections. Aldridge holds an MA from the Royal College of Artand in 1998 was awarded the Rome Scholarship in Fine Art. Upcoming shows include EmptyDistances, Mark Moore Gallery L.A. curated by Caryn Coleman-Mojica, First Cut, DjanoglyGallery, Nottingham touring to Southampton City Art Gallery and a solo show at NässjöKonsthall